How well do you really know your equestrian Jumping heroes?

The Longines FEI Nations Cup™Jumping is all over for another year, and we saw some of the best athletes in the world come to Barcelona to compete.   But some of these top riders have interesting histories and superstitions you may not know about Here are a few eye-openers you may not know about…  

Making choices

One thing that seems to be common among these Jumpers is their passion for sport, with some of them playing multiple sports growing up - and ultimately having to choose just one to pursue. For some, this was easy - Lauren Hough (USA) was an ice-skater for many years growing up, however her mother told her she couldn’t do both, and the decision to pursue Jumping was an easy one for her. Also nimble on the ice was Henrik Von Eckerman (SWE), who played Ice Hockey for a few years, before deciding to focus solely on Jumping.   For other riders, Jumping was not necessarily their first choice - Jur Vrieling from the Netherlands was more interested in football as a child, despite growing up around horses. Until, that is, he realised that he could actually do quite well in Jumping!  
“I wanted more and more. I wanted to be better. In football you could only get points and my sister came home from riding with cups and trophies."
Jur Vrieling
  A theme certainly starts to emerge here, with football being a big passion of many Jumpers. At the age of sixteen, Jur’s teammate, Dutchman Harrie Smolders had to choose between playing football or Jumping, and as he already had a few horses from owners, he chose Jumping. “My soccer trainer always told me I could make money with soccer, but I didn’t really believe him”. Thankfully he didn’t, and his decision paid off, as Harrie now sits at World #6 in the LONGINES rankings!  

Not always smooth sailing

  Another rider who has a dual love for football and Jumping is German Marcus Ehning. Marcus could be forgiven for preferring football to Jumping growing up, as he once received a special award for completing a Jumping course after falling off his horse three times! One man who could certainly empathise with Marcus is Swiss Martin Fuchs, as he notes one of his most embarrassing moments as falling off during an award ceremony in Galgenen in 2011. At least he made it to the prize giving!

Superstitious Jumpers

  For riders at the top of their sport, we assume that they all have specific routines that they follow prior to a competition, but how many of these routines are influenced by superstitions? Mclain Ward, nicknamed “The Kid”, and World #3 in the LONGINES rankings, notes that he has to wear a new tie pin every day, and always puts his left boot on first.   Canadian Eric Lamaze is no different - “I follow a routine when putting on my boots, my clothes and my spurs. I always do it the same way”. Kevin Staut from France, World #4 in the LONGINES rankings, focuses on the horse rather than himself - stroking it five times on each side of its neck before competing. When asked if he had any superstitions, Steve Guerdat said that he used to have a ritual of wearing the same belt at every show, and putting the same boot on first, until he started riding his top horse Nino des Buissonnets - then he realised it didn’t matter what he did, the horse would still put out an amazing performance, and so his superstitions were no more.

If this Jumping thing doesn’t work out…

  With these riders sitting at the top of their sport, it’s unlikely they’ll ever need to think about an alternative career - but if they did, what might those careers be? Swede, Peder Fredricson is a talented painter, and he has a number of his own equestrian paintings hanging on the walls of his home in Sweden.   Eric Lamaze has a keen interest (and talent for) remodelling and reselling houses, and has been known to look for inspiration for his next big project on a long flight by reading home magazines.

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